Installation

Installation

What you need

Volumio	Version 4 (Bookworm). The plugin does not install on Volumio 3, and Volumio 3 cannot be updated to 4 in place: Volumio 4 is a fresh installation.
Player	A Raspberry Pi (every model the Volumio Pi image runs on, from the Pi Zero up), another 32-bit or 64-bit ARM board Volumio supports, or an x86-64 computer.
Dongle	An RTL-SDR USB dongle with an RTL2832U chip. See Dongles for which ones are known to work and what to expect from each.
Antenna	One that suits the band you want: FM (76 to 108 MHz, depending on the region), DAB Band III (174 to 240 MHz), or both. See Antennas.
Internet	Only for installing and updating, for station logos and for album artwork. Reception itself needs none.

A short USB extension cable is worth having: most dongles are wide enough to block the neighbouring USB ports, and a little distance from the player also keeps the player's own radio noise out of the dongle.

Installing

1. Plug the dongle into the player and connect the antenna.
2. In Volumio, open Plugins, find FM/DAB Radio under Music Services, and install it.
3. Enable the plugin under Plugins > Installed Plugins.

The installer puts the plugin's own receiver programs in place, and stops the Linux television driver from claiming the dongle, which would otherwise keep the plugin from using it.

That is all. Continue with Getting Started: scan for stations and play one.

What gets installed

• The plugin itself, in Volumio's plugin folder.
• Its receiver programs. All of them carry an fn- prefix (fn-rtl_fm, fn-dab, fn-dab-scanner, fn-redsea, fn-rtl-gain and the RTL-SDR tools) and the library is named libfn-rtlsdr, so that nothing collides with packages of the same origin in the system.
• A blacklist entry for the kernel's DVB-T driver (/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtl-sdr.conf).

Where your data lives

What	Where	Survives a plugin update	Survives an uninstall
Station list and artwork block list	/data/configuration/music_service/rtlsdr_radio/	yes	a last copy is kept with the backups
Settings	Volumio's plugin configuration	yes	no, unless backed up
Backups	/data/rtlsdr_radio_backups/	yes	yes
Station logos	/data/rtlsdr_radio_logos/	yes	only with Auto-backup before uninstall

See Backup and Restore for the details.

Updating

Volumio offers plugin updates in its plugin list. The plugin can also update itself from the Station Manager, and offers earlier access to new versions there; see Updating the Plugin.

Uninstalling

Uninstall from Plugins > Installed Plugins. Backups in /data/rtlsdr_radio_backups/ are kept, and with them the last copy of the station list, which a later installation picks up again. With Auto-backup before uninstall selected in the Station Manager (Maintenance), a dated backup of stations, settings and block list is written first and the station logos are kept as well.